Sophist

A Sophist was a paid teacher of philosophy and rhetoric in ancient Greece, associated with moral skepticism and fallacious reasoning. Sophists sought advantages from knowledge without seeking truth, seeking the self-interest of the knowing subject. Above all else, the Sophists cultivated skill in argumentation and reduced ethics to mere arbitrary convention. Their controversial teachings had a huge influence on 5th century BC thought, and they were refuted by Socrates, whose own school of philosophy would replace Sophism.